


misplaced (mandrake root and guilt, among other things)

by the_gayest_witch (perfection_located)



Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017), The Worst Witch - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Claustrophobia, Crying, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, Kissing, Trapped In A Closet, Useless Lesbians
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-15
Updated: 2018-03-15
Packaged: 2019-03-31 17:29:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13979994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perfection_located/pseuds/the_gayest_witch
Summary: Hecate knew her eyes would be red, knew there would be the remains of saltwater sadness coating her cheekbones. She had forgotten not to cry for all the years she'd missed with Pippa, and here was the aftermath, ugly and strange.---moved from tumblr, but with a whole new scene and loads more angst





	misplaced (mandrake root and guilt, among other things)

**Author's Note:**

> hey! some of u may have seen this on my tumblr at the-gayest-witch-at-cackle but ive almost entirely rewritten the middle! i have.. so many new headcannons about hecate and touching other people, ok?
> 
> anyways i got prompted to write these two useless lesbians trapped in a cupboard, and it was supposed to be funny, but both of them spend a significant time crying. so. 
> 
> tw for claustrophobia

Hecate was searching for the mandrake root she kept in her personal stores and sighed when she was entirely unable to find it. She was supposed to be brewing a particularly delicate hormone replacement potion for one of the third years, but was lacking the final key ingredient. The potion had to be brewed by week’s end, and Hecate did not have the time to harvest any more of the root. She could have summoned it, of course, but this particular store of mandrake root had been harvested at a lunar eclipse and it lost its potency when acted upon by external enchantments. She was about to begin searching the top shelf of her cupboard when there was a knock at the door of the potions classroom. Who could-

"Hecate?"

Pippa. Of course. Hecate had been so entrenched in her search for the elusive ingredient that she had - quite uncharacteristically - lost track of time and forgotten that Pippa was coming over for evening tea. Goodness, it wasn't evening already?

Hecate waved a hand behind her back to unlock the classroom door and went about tidying up the chaos from her search. She would finish looking tomorrow - there were still three days left to start the brew. In the background, the door opened softly and clicked shut. Hecate magicked away what she could, and then began placing those items that she could not use magic on away one by one, methodically turning their labels outward.

"Ada told me I would find you in here. I ran into her outside of your rooms."

Hecate straightened and turned when she realized that Pippa had come to a halt directly behind her, leaning against the doorframe of the restricted ingredients cupboard, Morgana twining between her legs. "I am sorry to keep you waiting, Pippa. I got caught up looking for an ingredient. I just cannot seem to find the mandrake root I harvested during last summer's eclipse." Hecate blushed. She should have known better than to forget the time, no matter her distraction.

But Pippa only laughed, a gentle tinkling of bells. "I should have known. The only thing that would ever make you forget an appointment would be potions, wouldn't it, Hiccup?" Pippa pushed off of the doorframe with her hip and stepped further into the cupboard, which Hecate had just now realized was by no means large. 

Hecate's pulse raced in her throat at Pippa's proximity, but she told herself she would be uncomfortable no matter who was invading her personal space - never mind that Hecate simply would have transferred away if anyone else had come this close to her uninvited.

"Pippa?" she said, struggling to keep her voice even, even as a buzz began somewhere in her lower abdomen. "May I ask what you are doing?"

"Helping you look, of course! You'll never be able to focus on our tea if you think you've misplaced an ingredient." Pippa skirted Hecate and began to rifle through an upper shelf, muttering to herself. She paused after the fifth jar and turned her head to Hecate. "Well? Get looking!" Pippa's tone was teasing, and her smile lit something inside of Hecate's chest.

Hecate nodded mutely and renewed her search, this time beginning on the top shelf. She couldn't quite see it, so she muttered a levitation spell and floated a few inches from the floor. Peripherally, she saw Pippa cease poking through the ingredients and stare, mouth open prettily, at Hecate.

"What?" snapped Hecate. She could feel the heat rise in her cheeks. "Have I done something?"

Pippa snapped her mouth shut and stared at the floor, a blush on the back of her neck. "No! I- Hiccup, I've just never seen you do that before."

"Do what, exactly?" asked Hecate, lowering herself back to solid ground. 

"Levitate! Oh, Hecate, I've never seen anyone do it like that!" Pippa met Hecate's gaze. Something that Hecate thought might be wonder shone in her eyes.

"It- It's not difficult, Pippa. Witches do it all the time!" Despite her words, Hecate felt a warm, bubbling sensation rise in her stomach and fought to tamp it down.

"Yes, but- Hiccup, you didn't even chant! You just... muttered something under your breath!"

"Well, I don't see how-"

Pippa huffed, which shut Hecate up, and stepped forward, hands twitching as though to take Hecate's. "Hecate, can't you see how wonderful you are at the Craft? I'm sorry for staring, I know you hate it, but- Hiccup, you're amazing."

Hecate opened her mouth, shut it, opened it again, and was about to say something - she did not know what, but it would have been articulate, she assured herself -  when there was a flash of black, a startled meow, and the door to the cupboard swung shut with a firm thud.

Hecate broke away from Pippa, suddenly nervous, and pulled at the handle. It turned, but the door did not open. "Oh, for the love of Merlin and Morgana," she muttered. 

"Hiccup? What is it?" Pippa laid a gentle hand on Hecate's shoulder and gave it a comforting, questioning squeeze. Hecate struggled not to flinch at the contact - they had barely touched, since that reunion after the Spelling Bee. "Has something gone wrong?"

Hecate sighed and, in a moment of weakness, pressed her forehead to the door. "I'm afraid we're stuck in here until at least evening rounds, Pippa. That's when Ada will notice my absence, of course, and-"

"Stuck? How are we stuck? Surely you can get around a locked door." There was a frantic note to Pippa's voice. Surely being stuck with Hecate for an hour couldn't be that terrible?

"It's an enchanted door, Pipsqueak, and I did the enchanting. We had a few too many incidents of students stealing the more... unsavory ingredients I keep on hand, and now this particular cupboard can only be opened from the outside." Hecate was now regretting this choice quite empathetically.

"But, well, you can circumvent your own spells, can't you?" Pippa looked nervous, glancing around the small space as if an exit would suddenly appear. 

Hecate shook her head, which was still pressed forcibly to the rough wooden door. "Ada helped me cast it. I'm not sure what she wove in - I never did ask for details - and without knowing, I risk trapping us further."

Pippa raised her hand to try transferring, but Hecate reached behind herself and caught it blindly, firmly ignoring the warmth that spread through her hand from their point of contact, and dropped once she was assured that Pippa would not try to cast. "Ada took the liberty of placing an anti-transference spell on the cupboard itself after one of our craftier fourth years managed to escape using just that."

"Oh." Pippa dropped her hand. "And- and how long did you say it would be un-until someone realized we were m-missing?" Pippa's voice cracked on the last word and Hecate turned her head sharply to the side. She was taken aback when she saw how Pippa's face had grown pale and her eyes wide. The pink witch was twisting her hands together furiously. This wasn't the prospect of being trapped with Hecate; it was always Hecate who had been wary of close contact.

Hecate reached for Pippa's hands and nervously, hesitantly, gently took them in her own. '"Pippa? are you alright?"

Pippa's eyes were filling with tears as she met Hecate's steady, worried gaze. '"I- well- not exactly?"

The pieces in Hecate's mind clicked at last and her eyes widened. "Pipsqueak, you're afraid of small spaces. I'd forgotten. I'm so sorry."

Pippa's hands were shaking in Hecate's grasp and she began to breathe faster, eyes flicking from corner to corner. "Oh, I thought- I thought I'd gotten over this particular fear." She gave a weak, shaky laugh. "I guess I was wrong."

Hecate had no idea what to do, but she did her best anyways. She squeezed Pippa's hands firmly, and began to speak, low and steady, the way she would to a spooked horse. "You're perfectly fine, Pipsqueak, I promise. We'll be out of here in no time."

This was, for reasons unknown to Hecate, entirely the wrong thing to say, and Pippa broke down, crying in earnest now, and collapsed forward, head buried into the crook of Hecate's neck. Hecate could feel a dampness begin to seep into her skin. Unable to do anything except support the crying witch, she was forced to wrap an arm around Pippa's shoulders to keep both women even partially upright. "Pippa! Please, you're alright, I promise, you're okay. I'm right here." 

Pippa's sobs only grew louder and Hecate had to sink to the floor anyways, back braced upon the door, under Pippa's weight. She was strong, sure, but Pippa's torso now lay almost completely across Hecate's, and she had freed her hands only to bury them in Hecate's rumpled black dress. "Please, Pippa," whispered Hecate. "I don't know what to do. What can I do?"

Pippa was nearly incoherent beneath her tears, but she managed to speak. "Just hold me, please, Hecate. This room is s-so small. P-please, just hold m-me."

At Pippa's plea, Hecate wrapped a second arm tentatively around Pippa's back, only truly embracing when Pippa burrowed further into Hecate's chest. "O-of course, Pippa. Anything you like," she murmured, ignoring the way her eyes were misting.

Pippa's sobs began to quiet some minutes later, after Hecate had begun to whisper soothing nonsense into Pippa's hair, and one hand had started tracing absent patterns on pink fabric. 

Eventually, Pippa's sobs faded to the occasional hiccuping breath and drying tear tracks on damp cheeks. "Thank you," she muttered into Hecate's shoulder, where her face remained buried. 

"Of course," whispered Hecate. "Anything for you." She blushed, into the dim light of the cupboard, knowing how true those words were.

"I'm sorry I made such a fool of myself."

"Your fears do not make you a fool, Pippa Pentangle. You taught me that, remember?" she said, softly, into Pippa's hair. 

"When you were terrified of the dark." Pippa sniffled.

"I still am," confessed Hecate, "but I am less scared than I once was." She paused, considered, continued. "Thanks in large part to you. You reminded me that my fears did not control me, just as yours do not control you."

Pippa moved her head then, shifted so that she could look Hecate in the eyes, so she could thank her, and gasped. "Oh, Hiccup!"

Hecate turned her face away from Pippa's, staring determinedly into the opposite corner. While comforting Pippa, she had been so wrapped up in the other woman that she had forgotten to hold herself together, and her own tears had fallen, silent though they were. Hecate knew her eyes would be red, knew there would be the remains of saltwater sadness coating her cheekbones. She had forgotten not to cry for all the years she'd missed with Pippa, and here was the aftermath, ugly and strange. 

Hecate was surpised to feel gentle fingers come up to stroke her cheek, turning her face gently towards Pippa. Hecate went with it, but still she kept her eyes downcast, unable to meet a gaze she knew would demand answers.

"Hiccup?" Pippa's voice was like a balm to newly scraped palms and old bruises alike, but Hecate could still not meet her gaze. "Hiccup, what's wrong? Was that- did holding me make you uncomfortable?" Oh! Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean- I'm sorry! 

Hecate's head shot up in time to see Pippa's face twist into something painful, something like betrayal, for Pippa to begin to scramble back off of Hecate's lap, out of her embrace. Hecate didn't know what made her do it, other than the deeply held conviction that she could never again allow Pippa to think herself at fault for sins she had not commited, but her hand moved, nearly of its own accord, and caught Pippa's wrist. Pippa froze, having barely had the chance to retreat, and stared at where Hecate had grabbed her so firmly, so insistently.

Then she looked up, met Hecate's gaze, her eyes still red-rimmed, her face still puffy. Hecate thought she looked ethereal. It took her a moment to speak. "You didn't make me uncomfortable, Pippa. I-'" she swallowed around the lump in her throat, afraid, afraid, afraid in a way only Pippa could make her. "I didn't do anything I didn't want to do."

A trembling hand rose to Hecate's cheek again, this time shyer, questioning, unsure - so unlike Pippa in every way, and yet undoubtedly hers, soft and gentle and kind. "You're sure?"

Hecate tilted her head, imperceptibly, into Pippa's hand, until it was cupping her cheek, the way it had earlier. This felt right, in a way Hecate was not prepared to admit. "I'm sure." 

Pippa sagged back into Hecate's embrace, forehead against collarbone, hand on hip, crying again, although this time it was quieter, softer. Her hand did not move from Hecate's face. The sobs faded after a few moments, before Pippa raised her head to speak again to Hecate. "Oh, I couldn't stand if I'd invaded your space like that, Hiccup. I'd hate myself forever, knowing I'd done that."

"You didn't, Pipsqueak. I promise." And Hecate was earnest, as she hadn't been in years, desperate that Pippa not place blame on herself that she did not deserve. Hecate had cause enough harm already, she knew; she would not cause more.

Pippa didn't respond, staring instead at Hecate's face, eyes flitting from eyes to nose to lips and back. "Have I- have I got something on my face?" asked Hectae, self concious, suddenly and harshly brought back to the reality where she was just a gangly, awkward witch. She released Pippa's wrist to check, to feel her lips for something trapped, but her hand was caught on the way up, flipped, brought gently to Pippa's lips instead.

Pippa kissed Hecate's knuckles once, twice, three times, before turning the hand in her grasp and placing a single soft, reverent kiss to the center of Hecate's palm. Her eyes did not waver from Hecate's. "There's nothing on your face, Hiccup. You're just breathtaking, even like this."

Hecate could not help the sharp intake of breath, the pink blush that bloomed across porcelain cheeks. She averted her gaze again, this time to stare at the floor. "You really are an incurable flirt, Pippa Pentangle," she muttered. She firmly ignored the way it felt as though an entire cage of bats had been released into her stomach.

"Only with you," whispered Pippa, smiling wanly.

Hecate thought she might choke on her own heart, so high had it risen in her throat. Still, she looked back up at Pippa. "Don't be silly, Pipsqueak. You flirt with everything with a pulse."

Pippa shook her head, eyes trained on Hecate's. "But I don't mean it with any of them."

"Meaning?" The bats in Hecate's stomach had begun to perform aerial stunts. Did Pippa mean what she thought-

Pippa laughed, then, a sad little laugh, with a throat still hoarse. Her hand cupped Hecate's cheek more firmly. "You really must know by now, Hiccup. Why else- why else would I look at you the way that I do?"

"W-what way?" stuttered Hecate. 

"Like I'm trying to decide whether or not to kiss you. Which I am, for the record. Trying to decide." Pippa looked as though she might cry again, smile or not.

"But- Pippa- I-"

Pippa shifted her hand until her thumb lay over Hecate's lips, shushing the flustered woman. "I thought I'd been so obvious. I have been obvious. I guess- I guess you don't care for me, that way. And I really did think, with the way I catch you looking sometimes-" Pippa cut herself off, shook her head, stared down at Hecate's lap. "Ah, well. Now it's out in the open. I'm sorry if I've made you uncomfortable. Please don't let this ruin our friendship."

"Pipsqueak," mumbled Hecate, lips still trapped by Pippa's thumb. Her voice was shaking. She hadn't known, and now Pippa thought- "Pippa. Pipsqueak."

Pippa raised her eyes slowly, carefully, searching Hecate's face for disgust, or for rejection. 

Instead, she found hope.

Instead, Hecate moved forward until Pippa's thumb was trapped between both women's lips, pad to Hecate's and thumbnail to Pippa's. Hecate's eyes had turned pleading. 

"Oh." Pippa was beginning to tear up again, although this time from joy, or at least the hope of it.

Slowly, carefully, Pippa pulled her thumb away. When Hecate remained there, frozen, breath on Pippa's lips, Pippa realized that she would have to make the first move. Hecate had been as open as she could, had gone as far as she would allow herself, and now it was up to Pippa.

Gently, at first, Pippa pressed her lips to Hecate's soft, thin ones. They moulded to Pippa's, trapping one of Pippa's rosy-pink lips between a red-painted pair. 

Hecate's hands bunched suddenly at Pippa's waist, as though she did not know what to do with them, as though she wanted to do so much with them that she had to trap them somewhere safe. Pippa, in her turn, wrapped one hand around Hecate's neck and tangled the other into a quickly unravelling bun. 

Their kisses became deeper, but remained - for the most part - chaste. There was a plea for forgiveness in every press of lips to lips. Hecate felt her cheeks grow wet and was not sure who had begun crying. It might have been both of them.

What felt like a moment and a millennia later, they parted, breathing heavily, with kiss swollen lips and smeared lipstick. Hecate was pleased to note a streak of red at the corner of Pippa's mouth, and made no move to wipe it away. 

"Pip-pipsqueak. I didn't- I'm sorry- I-" Hecate paused to collect her thoughts. "I didn't think you felt the same. I was so scared you would leave me, and I- I just couldn't bear the thought."

Pippa smiled, happily now, and wiped at a streak of pink lipstick from below Hecate's lips with her thumb. "I thought I was being obvious, and that you just weren't interested. But then you would look at me like you wanted to kiss me, and I thought I was going crazy." 

Pippa stole another kiss, then, this one sweet, and Hecate smiled into it. "Pipsqeuak, we've both been fools, haven't we?"

"Terrible fools indeed, Hiccup."

It was minutes later that Ada appeared, having finally surmised what had occured after Hecate had not appeared to report on her evening rounds. She found a pair of smiling women, both flustered and mussed. Pippa was hiding her head in Hecate's shoulder, still uncomfortable in the small space, and Hecate's eyes still betrayed tears, both of regret and of joy. When both women met Ada's gaze, though, their own contained nothing but hope.

Ada mentioned none of what she had observed. She accepted Hecate's explanation - a startled cat and an accidentally closed door- before pottering off to do evening rounds herself, waving the deputy headmistress off with the insistence that she care for her guest.

Hecate did not put up much of a protest. Instead, she escorted Pippa to her rooms and they fell asleep in one another's arms.

(Hecate did find the mandrake root, eventually, hidden at the very back of the cupboard. She went on to brew a perfect potion. In case you were curious.)

**Author's Note:**

> let me know what you thought!!
> 
> a brief note: im not claustrophobic! i don't know what thats like. if i got it wrong (eg pippa begin able to ignore it long enuf to talk to/comfort/kiss hecate) let me know! i do have other various and assorted anxieties, which get pretty gnarlty, that i can set aside if given a singular object to focus all of my attention on, but again, I'm not claustrophobic so i dont know if that works for claustrophobia. please let me know if i need to change it!
> 
> you can drop me prompts at the-gayest-witch-at-cackle on tumblr, or just roll into my messages if u wanna scream about hecate hardbroom, the most Extra lesbian of all time
> 
> love u all <3


End file.
